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Monthly Archives: September 2014

‘Chalet Hosting – Your Step by Step Guide’ was a complete, comprehensive manual for being a chalet host. For the ignorant among us, a chalet host works in a ski resort in a catered chalet. They spend their time cooking and cleaning for their guests before hitting the slopes in the afternoon and partying all night long.

When I first started reading this e-guide, I was under the impression that being a chalet host was similar to being a glorified butler. Having finished the book, I now know that it is the job of a lifetime and something I would love to do in the future. Seriously – chalet hosting is dream job material!

Written in educational, yet bubbly prose, Sarah Williams (author and serial adventurer) manages to be both entertaining and informative. This guide covered everything you needed to know about being a chalet host, from where to work, who to apply to, what a typical day was like and how to survive the training week. As well as an astoundingly detailed account of how to cook the perfect meal (which included a section on cooking cakes at high altitude) this guide also included how to ace interviews and write an amazing CV.

This was the first guide I have ever come across that actually went into detail on succeeding at a job interview. Where others vaguely advised to “ask questions at the end”, Williams provided a list of possible questions, set out in neat bullet points. Whilst others merely cautioned to “dress smartly”, Williams launched in with exactly what constitutes as smart, cheekily reminding boys to “wear black socks,” and girls to choose shoes they “can walk in.” This was advice for the real world, from the real world, and was related to the reader in such a charming way I found myself actually laughing out loud. Williams has a gift for being both witty and illuminative. Her meticulous guide provides first class tips on all aspects of chalet life – and there is even a section on the matter of sleeping with the guests. This innocuous subheading made me chuckle with its first bullet point, “only sleep with the hot ones.”

The in-depth nature of this guide really makes it stand out. I had no idea that there was so much to learn about the world of being a chalet host. This isn’t a job for the faint hearted: there is an awful lot of hard work involved. Early mornings, hideous hangovers and grumpy guests, to name but a few. But, as Williams so cheerfully pointed out, the job comes with a luxury lifestyle and innumerable benefits. You get to become a fabulous skier, a superstar cleaner, and a baker to rival the skill of Mary Berry. You come home with transferable talents such as customer service, budgeting, teamwork and public speaking. And that’s only the very tip of the iceberg!

This guide made me smile, educated me, and left me with a burning desire to be a chalet host. Congratulations to Sarah Williams for writing another inspirational guide!